ABSTRACT
The case of the ancient Greek aristocracy (or ‘aristocracy’) seems rather well suited to a study of ‘class(less) society and the recognition gap’. Ever since the fall, in the 1970s, of the theory of the Greek city-state (polis) as a ‘clan state’ the very idea of a Greek aristocracy has been under attack. It was ultimately challenged in the twenty-first century by scholars who argue for the nonexistence of such a social group in the archaic and early classical period (ca. 800–ca. 400 BCE) and focus instead on the individual strategies of social recognition (Fr. reconnaissance sociale) of wealthy families and powerful individuals. However, on the one hand, the idea of distinguishing ‘the good ones’ (Gr. hoi agathoi) and ‘the vile ones’ (Gr. hoi kakoi) was itself amply present in archaic Greek literary texts. On the other hand, an elite culture, focused on cultural skills giving access to local elite social circles, seems to have been one of the key factors of social life in the aforementioned historical periods.
